Plan and Policy

Upset over police treating his son’s ‘unnatural death’ as suicide rather than a murder, a Muslim man has embraced Hinduism along with 12 of his family members, said officials here.

Akhtar, resident of Badarkha village under Chhaprauli police station area, accepted Hinduism on Monday along with family and subsequently submitted an affidavit to the area sub-divisional magistrate, testifying to their voluntary change of religion. Akhtar later told reporters that he felt the religion change might spur police to “properly investigate his son’s murder”.

Chaos prevailed at the Delhi-UP border on Tuesday as thousands of protesting farmers attempted to enter the national capital, prompting the police to resort to water cannons and tear-gas shells to disperse them, evoking a sharp criticism from opposition parties. Seeking to convince the farmers to move back from their protest, the government announced that a committee of chief ministers will look into their demands, but the protesters stayed put saying they were not “satisfied” with the assurance.

Seeking rich political dividend in assembly elections next year, the Chandrababu Naidu government on Monday launched a scheme to give out Rs 1,000 monthly allowance to thousands of unemployed youth in the state. It has also roped in firms like Foxconn, Kia Motors, Amar Raja and Brandix to make them job-ready by imparting skill and training.

Outstanding dues of big wilful defaulters of Punjab National Bank reduced marginally to 15,075.07 crore at end-August from Rs 15,175 crore at the July end, according to the bank’s data. According to the list of wilful defaulters who took lo­ans of Rs 25 lakh and more, Kudos Chemie and Kingfisher Airli­n­es were the major borrowe­rs with outstanding amou­nt of Rs 1,301.82 crore and Rs 597.44 crore, respectively.

The finance ministry expects the GST collections to cross Rs 1 lakh crore in November and December on account of festive season demand and the anti-evasion measures initiated by the revenue department.

The goods and services tax (GST) revenue rose to Rs 94,442 crore in September and officials feel it could surpass the landmark Rs 1 lakh crore on increased demand during festival season.

“With the current trend for GST mopup, it is expected that the monthly collections could again touch Rs 1 lakh crore around November and December,” an official said.

Power tariff touched a decade high of Rs 18 per unit in the spot market on Tuesday due to low hydro and wind energy production and coal shortage at thermal plants. “Spot power price for supply on Wednesday touc­h­­ed 10-year high of Rs 18 per unit in spot trading on In­dian Energy Exchange (IEX) on Tuesday. The avera­ge spot power price was al­so high at Rs 7.12 per unit at IEX on Tuesday,” a source said.

The US Supreme Court handed a victory to proponents of open access to California’s coastline on Monday, declining the appeal of a billionaire venture capitalist seeking to keep a popular beach locked behind a gate as his exclusive property. The court’s denial leaves intact a state appellate decision requiring Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla (in pic) to apply for a California Coastal Commission permit to restrict public entry to Martins Beach in San Mateo County, south of San Francisco.